Food Hygiene data – Supporting notes

Aggregated figures for each country may differ from those in the Annual report on local authority food law enforcement due to late amendments made by some by local authorities.

- FTEs - Important note

In submitting this data local authorities are advised that the numbers of FTE posts provided should reflect the actual proportion of time spent by professional and administrative staff on food hygiene and/or food standard issues. There is, however, no prescriptive guidance given on exactly how that time should be determined and the FSA recognises that figures supplied will often be ‘educated estimates’.

The FSA is aware that local authorities calculate the proportion of time using a variety of different methods which means that the validity of making direct local authority to local authority comparisons is limited and any conclusions drawn from doing so must be treated with caution. It is for this reason, that the FSA uses the data only in a generic way to compare year on year figures to look at overall trends in the number of FTEs in local authority food law enforcement services across the UK or in individual countries.

In light of the above, if you intend to use the FTE data for comparison of individual local authorities, we would advise strongly that you contact each authority directly to discuss how their estimates were derived. This will also provide an opportunity to ensure that the data you have is up-to-date.

† LAEMS return delayed due to the unprecedented challenges faced by the LA since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

NP - no premises given at this risk rating. NR - no interventions due or reported.

(1) These local authorities (together with Dorset CC) formed the new Dorset Council on 1st April 2019 but each LA reported separately for 2019/20. (2) Potential error in interventions data due to database issue. (3) Most of the food hygiene and food standards written warning data are reported together. (4) LA reported that there are some inconsistencies in their return. (5) Food hygiene and food standards data are separate for 2019/20 but were previously reported together. (6) Number of unrated premises reported may be inaccurate due to database issue. (7) Sampling visits were carried out but not recorded on LAEMS. (8) Only deals with food standards. (9) These local authorities merged on 1 April 2019 and are now known as BCP Council, Bournemouth and Christchurch have reported together, and Poole separately for 2019/20. (10) Food hygiene and food standards full time equivalent posts are reported together.